Coaches

Emmie Koenig

A native of San Francisco, Coach Emmie has dedicated herself to the sport of rowing for over 16 years, distinguishing herself as a highly respected and accomplished junior and collegiate oarswoman, varsity women’s coach, and Program Director. Coach Emmie rowed for the PRC varsity women’s team as a youth and was recruited to the renowned UC Berkeley collegiate rowing team, where she was able to transfer her success as a PRC rower to a national championship for the Bears. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009 with a degree in Environmental Geography. Emmie returned to PRC as a coach is committed to encouraging the development of young women through rowing and is looking forward to helping the PRC women accomplish big goals. #RISE

Julian Stephanski

Coach Julian is a native San Franciscan and a Pacific Alum. Julian began rowing in the fall of 2004 at PRC while attending Drew High School in SF. He rowed 3 seasons at Pacific and finished his senior year with a Youth National Championship in the Men's 8+. Julian was recruited to row at Gonzaga University, and helped the program to three appearances at the IRA national championships. Since graduation, Julian has coached both the novice Men's and Women's programs. He has worked with almost every rower currently at PRC, and takes great pride in seeing the club's progress.

Catherine Hicks

Coach Catherine has come to PRC from New York where she first made her mark on the rowing community as a talented coxswain for the New York University rowing club. After graduating from NYU in 2013 with a degree in Social Justice and International Development, Coach Catherine served as assistant novice coach at Row New York where she recruited and trained novice high school rowers from New York City and helped several novice crews to successful seasons. Coach Catherine also has a rich background in supporting youth-oriented non-profit communities, as evident in her work tutoring and mentoring young athletes, coaching adaptive rowing for students with cognitive disabilities, and working in summer academies for refugee youth as they adapted to the English language and living in America. Coach Catherine brings energy, ambition, and focus to the PRC program.

Rich Wendling

Coach Rich has been actively engaged in rowing 20 years and has distinguished himself as a collegiate athlete, collegiate head coach, and dedicated advocate for young rowers in middle school and high school club programs. Coach Rich comes to PRC most recently from the Oakland Strokes where he coached the Novice Men the last 2 seasons,coordinated their Middle School rowing programand coached the Varsity for 2 years. Coach Rich graduated from Saint Mary's College in 1989 with degrees in Economics and Business. He was a member of their lightweight rowing team for three years and then went on to serve as head coach of their women’s team andfirst founder of their middle school and High School Summer camps. He later was the Head Coach for the UC Berkeley Women's Lightweight rowing team with much success, winning WIRA's, the Dad Vail Regatta and consistently one of the top ten lightweight teams in the country during his tenure.

Kate Girlich

Born and raised in San Francisco, Coach Kate was a distinguished coxswain at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, leading her boat into the grand finals at the Southwest Youth Championships three consecutive years. She graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University in 2015 where she assisted with the men’s rowing team and witnessed its transformation into a championship program with successful WIRA and IRA appearances. Enthusiastic about sports education, Coach Kate has a strong background in mentoring and coaching, as she was the coordinator of a youth athletics camp at Santa Clara University and the freshman girls' rowing coach at Saint Ignatius. Along with her knowledge of rowing and coxing, Coach Kate also brings to Pacific her talents in recruiting, fundraising, and tutoring students in academics. Her brother Stephen rowed three years at Pacific with Coach Julian, and she credits her early experiences of cheering them on at regattas with developing her passion for the sport.

Mike Knapp

After coaching the Varsity men at pacific for 6 years, Coach Mike has been elected as the club's Fundraising Chair. He is excited to grow the club and take Pacific to new competitive heights regionally and nationally.

Coach Mike’s passion for the sport developed at Dartmouth College, where he rowed for four years, and spent his final three seasons in the Varsity 8+. Originally from Boston, he was recruited to row at Dartmouth College, where he was named the most improved rower as a junior and the best overall contributor to the team as a senior. The intense competitiveness he learned in the Eastern Sprints league has transferred nicely to west coast junior rowing, as Coach Mike has helped lead the Pacific Varsity Men to much success. Mike moved to the Bay Area after Dartmouth to work for Facebook, but eventually discovered his love/a passion for/the joy of working with High School students, and earned a Master's in Education from USC. He is currently an English teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco. In his free time, you can find him on the beaches of Pacifica chasing after his Golden Retriever, Ishmael

Joe Mees

Co-founder of Pacific Rowing Club, Joe has been coaching junior rowing since 1972, first for St. Joseph High School, then Oakland Strokes and lastly at Pacific Rowing Club from 1980 until the present. He has coached boys and girls, novice and varsity, and has served as boathouse manager and head coach. Since 2002 he has been a member of the PRC board of directors, currently acting as treasurer. Additionally, Joe serves as General Manager, running the business of PRC and mentoring our coaches and rowers.